Campaign Talk : A window on the California elections

53 days left to register to vote before the Oct. 9 deadline.

81 days left before the Nov. 6 general election.

INTELLGENCE

Looking ahead: Democrat Paul Carpenter is running for reelection to the Board of Equalization at the same time as he is standing trial on political corruption charges dating back to his days in the state Senate. Conventional wisdom says he should be a politician facing big trouble with voters in November. But his Republican opponent, Joe H. Adams Jr. of Burbank, is a political novice with no name recognition and no campaign money to capitalize on Carpenter’s legal problems.

Still, Carpenter might wish he could take back some of the political chitchat he engaged in with undercover FBI agent John E. Brennan. Transcripts of that secretly taped 1986 conversation show a confident Carpenter talking about how easy it is for a Democrat to win in his Los Angeles County Board of Equalization district because of the racial mix: “I’ve got 40% black, about 35% Hispanic, about 5% uh, Asian . . . and I’m the last white man.”

Steerage: It’s the 4:55 p.m. packed-full shuttle from Sacramento to Burbank. Among the last to board is a man in a gray suit, toting a battered briefcase and excusing himself as he squeezes to the window seat. A businessman several rows away whispers to his seatmates: “It’s John Van de Kamp. That’s what happens when you lose the governorship--back in steerage with the rest of us.”

Socialist hope: With communism in retreat around the world, Joel Britton is a rare breed these days. The El Segundo oil refinery worker, claiming that capitalism is in its death throes, is running for governor on the Socialist Workers ticket. In announcing his candidacy, Britton denounced, among other things, “big oil companies” for conspiring to embroil the United States in the Persian Gulf conflict. Of course, Britton himself works for Chevron, one of the world’s largest oil companies.

VOTES CAST BY ABSENTEE BALLOT

The figures listed below represent the growing popularity of voting by absentee ballot in Clifornia over the last decade. Presented are the percentages of voters who cast absentee ballots in the primary and general elections since 1980. 1980: PRIMARY ELECTION 5.0 GENERAL ELECTION 6.2 1982: PRIMARY ELECTION 5.6 GENERAL ELECTION 6.5 1984: PRIMARY ELECTION 7.5 GENERAL ELECTION 9.3 1986: PRIMARY ELECTION 8.6 GENERAL ELECTION 9.0 1988: PRIMARY ELECTION 9.5 GENERAL ELECTION 14.1 1990: PRIMARY ELECTION 15.0 Source: California Secretary of State

SOUNDINGS

From Democratic attorney general candidate Arlo Smith, who is balding, using his newborn grandson to take a swipe at his Republican opponent’s resume:

“He’s got my hair and Dan Lungren’s prosecutorial experience.”

From Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) sharing his feelings with the Orange County Register about a gubernatorial veto of $46 million for the Santa Ana River flood control project:

“Orange County created George Deukmejian. How can he do this to the one county out of 58 that made him governor?”

From veteran pollster Mervin Field, in an interview with the Sacramento Bee:

“We have a voting overclass and a non-voting underclass. The voting class is much whiter, much older, much more capable of harboring white vs. minority bias.”

CAMPAIGN FACT

Since the turn of the century, California has had 12 Republican governors and just three Democrats.

EXIT LINE

“He is pablum. The politics he espouses are pablum.”

--Democrat Dianne Feinstein, commenting on Republican gubernatorial opponent Pete Wilson, in the New Republic.